Alberta Land Surveyors Retrace the 200 Year Old Path of David Thompson

Alberta Land Surveyors Retrace the 200 Year Old Path of David Thompson David Thompson was born in London, England, in 1770, and at the age of seven, he was enrolled by his mother in the historic “'Grey Coat” charity school near Westminster Abbey. Young David demonstrated an aptitude for mathematics, and so his education became oriented towards a career as a midshipman in the Royal Navy. However, as Thompson neared the end of his formal education at the age of 14, he entered the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, and set sail for the Hudson’s Bay region of Canada.

By chance, Thompson advanced his survey training with a Hudson’s Bay surveyor as a result of a long recuperation from a serious leg injury, and so began his career in 1788 as a surveyor and fur trader for the “Company”.

Article and Photos by Ken Johnson www.cryofront.com

In 1797 Thompson became unhappy with the fur trade emphasis of the Hudson's Bay Company, so he decided to “cross the floor” to join the rival North West Company.

Over the course of his work for both the Hudson’s Bay and Northwest Companies, until his retirement from fur trading in 1815, David Thompson traveled more than 90,000 kilometres and mapped an estimated 4 million square kilometres of the North American continent. In fact, American explorers Lewis and Clark made use of Thompson’s maps during the course of their adventures. He created a complete map of his travels in 1815, and this map has stood the test of time for its accuracy, and is now considered to be a geographic treasure.

Photo: ALS Team members paddle in the lead canoe as the brigade makes a landing in Devon, Alberta.

Alberta Land Surveyors Retrace the 200 Year Old Path of David Thompson

The extraordinary path of surveyor David Thompson was retraced from Rocky Mountain House to Fort William (Thunder Bay) by a "Brigade" of modern day voyageurs over a 63 day, 3600 kilometre voyage in the summer of 2008. A team of Alberta Land Surveyors joined this adventure of a lifetime for an 1100 kilometre paddle through Alberta and onto Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.

How does a team of inexperienced voyageur canoe paddlers plan and execute this extraordinary trip SIMPLE, find an extraordinary team captain such as Monroe Kinloch, ALS. Well, maybe not so simple according to Monroe.

Monroe entered the fold of the David Thompson Brigade organizing committee in 2007 after the committee had already been planning the voyage for 3 years. Three years may seem like a long lead time for this adventure, but consider the fact that at its peak the Brigade comprised a moving "village" of over 200 people, including 160 paddlers and support crew. Trying to find a campground for this many people without several years advance notice would be an impossible task.

The full contingent of the ALS Team joined Monroe over the course of 2007 and into early 2008. We were essentially a team of 12 paddlers and 4 support crew, which varied in paddler numbers as team members came and went over the course of 2 weeks that the ALS team participated in the Brigade. The team members included Robin Arthurs, Denny DeMeyer, Delores DeMeyer, Bruce Clark, Thompson Clark, John Haggerty, Peggy Holroyd, Barry Hardy, Ken Johnson, Michale Lang, Richard Lang, Pat Moloney, Rob Moloney, Hugh Moloney, Harold Pliszka, Lew Rodney, Mark Selander, Jim Stuart, Floss Thomson, and Gordon Thomson.

Upper Photo: “String of Pearls” paddles into Elk Point.

Lower Photo: ALS Team Captain Monroe Kinloch, ALS.

As team leader, Monroe's first task was to find a voyageur canoe. Much to Monroe's surprise these canoes cannot be purchased at Canadian Tire. After a few queries through the Brigade committee, a 40 year old boat was located in Rocky Mountain House, and ultimately "portaged" to his garage in Sherwood Park.

Over the next 12 weeks an amazing effort was applied

by Monroe's extended family and neighbours, transforming a well used old canoe into a floating work of art. We certainly could not compete in light weight, and hence speed, with the majority of the space age "kevlar" canoes on the voyage, but we stood apart from the others with the “look” of our rebuilt fibre glass canoe.

Our voyage was indeed an adventure from the onset, with 30 centimetres of fresh snow welcoming us to Rocky Mountain House in the second week of May. In spite of the weather, the spirits of the ALS team and the entire Brigade remained high as we set out to paddle across a good part of Canada. The capability to paddle from one end of country to the other, with the exception of British Columbia, and only portaging 150 kilometres, is uniquely Canadian. This geographic feature allowed the Northwest Company to compete from Montreal with the Hudson’s Bay Company during the fur trade.

Our first week on the river was a blur of learning the long lost arts of the voyageurs, while coping with a significant level of fatigue.

This fatigue forced many of the paddlers into bed by 9 o'clock just to get enough rest to continue the routine the next day and the day after that.

Alberta Land Surveyors Retrace the 200 Year Old Path of David Thompson The ALS team started out as a novice team of paddlers in the first few days of the voyage, and quickly progressed into an independent crew with the guidance of the seasoned paddlers from the Brigade.

The first week of paddling also offered a variety of river conditions and river vistas. A metre of river bank ice followed the Brigade for the first 2 days, reminding us that a mere 2 weeks had only passed since the North Saskatchewan had experienced its annual "breakup". The upper reaches of the river also offered some fast water and good practice in developing maneuvering skills - there was also many opportunities for scraping some paint off the keel with the odd encounter with a gravel bar.

The routine of river travel was quickly established with both the early to bed nights, early to rise mornings, and the morning bowl of porridge prepared by our support crew.

Hats off to Floss Thomson , wife of Gordon Thomson, BCLS, and Delores DeMeyer, wife of Denny DeMeyer, PLS (Washington State Land Surveyor) for their unbridled efforts during the ALS team voyage.

Adding to the variety of paddling skills were sailing skills that included the design and assembly of a square rigging, as well as the actual use of sail itself. We also experienced the unique opportunity of sailing through a set of rapids.

Mark Selander, ALS takes a well deserved nap after a day on the North Saskatchewan River.

John Haggerty, ALS leads the Brigade in a parade through Elk Point with a voyageur canoe in tow.

The Brigade experienced a metre of shore ice for the first two days of paddling.

The ALS canoe first touched water on a lake near Rocky Mountain House.

The second week of paddling for the ALS team offered much tougher conditions with strong headwinds, and long days on the water. The team remained very thankful for our support crew, their great cooking, and their camp tear down, relocation and set up, each and every day. This gave the paddlers the luxury of collapsing at the end of each day with a cold beer and no worries.

Although the participation of the ALS team was brief in the overall David Thompson Brigade voyage, the team was integral to the overall spirit of the Brigade with the bagpipes of John Haggerty being heard as the Brigade made ceremonial landings at communities along the way, and the "musket" salute of Monroe that usually accompanied John's piping.

Among the many memorable events along the way was the Brigade's landing at Elk Point with a "string of pearls" canoe formation and the pipes of the "surveyors" growing louder as the Brigade approached the landing point. David Thompson would be proud of the efforts of his modern day counterparts.